Can Hope Be Restored?

How do we stay hopeful when things are not looking like they’re going very well?

Well, maybe some of us don’t. It’s a going argument these days. The world is going to hell in a hand basket, and the only honest response is outrage and despair. Staying hopeful is a version of willful blindness to reality.

I don’t buy it, and maybe you don’t, either. Hope, and some robust, clear-eyed version of optimism is necessary – even in the face of terrible realities going on about us.

You and I both know it’s NOT about saying “everything is going to be okay,” right? Because often, it simply isn’t going to be. The loved one with stage four cancer is probably going to die, the sea levels are definitely going to rise, and if we’ve been struggling with our business for a long time, it’s not going to get completely better tomorrow.

So, what does hope look like when there are concrete negative outcomes all around us? And why should we bother?

Here’s where a certain kind of spirituality comes in. Not necessary organized religion (although that can work, too), but a heart-perspective that sees something larger that isn’t strictly provable, but it’s still something we choose to put our faith in and our efforts toward–and which feels real to us.

There are so many contexts in which to ask these questions:

• On Facebook, where “gotcha politics,” hatred of our opponents, and a kind of despair seems almost required.
• In our personal lives, where we run into real crises that test our sense of possibility.
• In our emotional lives, when authentic depression and anxiety can run the show in a way we absolutely cannot escape easily.
• In our businesses, if we’ve been struggling, under earning, or in any way not moving forward for a long time, we may have, simply, run out of hope.

I would like to suggest that a kind of reality-based hope is still available, even in all these circumstances (including depression and anxiety). And that despair and hope are not actually completely incompatible.

Years ago I was told that the word “gospel” (euangellion in Greek), means “good news.”  It’s connected to the word for “angel,” which in Greek literally means “messenger.” (And yes, it’s connected to “evangelist,” which means “one who brings good news.”)

The deepest meaning about the good news isn’t some treacly, pollyanna assurance that everything is just fine. It’s a deeper sense that goodness is real and persists and is worth betting on.

When I am fighting a great fight against what seems like something terrible, it matters that I bring this perspective with me, otherwise I risk becoming what I am fighting against. I also think it’s the most practical thing imaginable – fighting with a sense that goodness persists, beyond what I am fighting, and beyond my own limitations and mistakes.

How does this relate to business? Below is a video testimonial from a good friend of mine, Peter Touchard. In this video, he says something important: that as he learned to succeed in his work, he found that he could make mistakes and be well, and that what he had to offer mattered, was something worth building, was something others wanted him to succeed in building.

This is a movement from discouragement to hope. Even as we are still on the way.

I am convinced this is the number one thing business owners need to succeed: hope and resilience and a connection to goodness. Watch Peter radiate this sense of himself, hard-won over the last few years.
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If you are struggling in your business, I invite you to connect with me and see if my upcoming programs are a good fit. If you’re losing hope, or have lost hope, it can be restored.

What is your experience hope in the face of despair? Please share your thoughts and comments below.